Solutions to Commonly Encounted Problems

Q: I can't figure out how to run the program. When I try to run GED2HTML.EXE, a window pops up with a message I can't understand and it just sits there.

A: The current version of GED2HTML.EXE does not have a true Windows front-end, and needs to be launched from the File Manager. See here for the simplest way to do it.

Q: Everything looks fine on my PC, but when I upload the files to my Web service provider, all the HTML files have suffix ``.htm'' and Netscape doesn't seem to interpret them as HTML files.

A: This is a somewhat technical problem. The easiest solution requires the cooperation of your Web service provider. Web servers generally have a ``mime.types'' configuration file, which lists mappings from filename suffixes to MIME types. This information allows the server to determine what kind of information is in a file by looking at the suffix. The server communicates this information to your browser when the file is retrieved, and the browser, in turn, uses the information to control how the file is displayed. Some servers lack an entry:

text/HTML htm in this file, which would tell them that files ending in ``.htm'' are to be interpreted as HTML source. Your files all end in ``.htm'' because they were created under DOS, and DOS only supports three-letter filename suffixes. It is not sufficient to change the names of all the files to end in ``.html'', because then the names won't match all the links in each of the files. What you need to do is to ask your friendly Web service provider to add the above entry to the server ``mime.types'' configuration file. Usually they will agree to do this for you, as it doesn't have any bad effect, and it will generally help out DOS users who are uploading HTML from their PC's.

Q: How can I create all the output files so that their names end in ``.html'', rather than ``.htm''.

A: You can't, at least not on pre-Windows 95 systems. The reason is that DOS only supports three-letter filename suffixes, and will truncate anything longer than that. It might be possible to have longer suffixes on Windows 95. I don't know because I don't have Windows 95. Try using the ``-f'' option to GED2HTML.EXE to specify an alternate filename template string. See here for more details on how to supply options.

Q: How can I cause all the HTML files to be generated so that the links in all the individual files specify filenames ending in ``.html'', rather than ``.htm''?

A: To do this, you need to use the ``-t'', ``-T'', and ``-S'' options to GED2HTML.EXE to cause it to use the sample output template files INDIV.TPL, INDEX.TPL, and SURNAME.TPL, supplied with the distribution, rather than the compiled-in output templates. See here for more details on how to supply options.

Q: After I upload all the HTML files to my Web service provider, none of the links work, because the file names are all in lower case, but the links specify the file names in upper case.

A: You need to use different program that uploads your HTML files without changing their names to lower case. See here for a suggestion.

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Copyright © 1995 Eugene W. Stark. All rights reserved.
stark@cs.sunysb.edu